Changes in legislation, such as arising from European Directive 2003/10/EC, make the use of hearing protection advisory for daily exposures at or above 80 dB, and compulsory where exposures exceed 85 dB. It may be assumed, therefore, that employers may be seeking personal hearing protection for workers in environments where noise levels are in the range 80-90 dB, and that employers are seeking to provide personal hearing protection to workers who have previously not made use of protection.
Employers should be seeking protection, suited to the work and working environment, but not ‘over protecting’ (i.e. aiming to avoid protected levels of less than 70 dB).
When worn in a noise environment of 85 dB, a protector providing attenuation equal to the minimum requirements would produce, according to standard methods and for the majority of the population, protected levels around or below the low to mid 70s (depending on the characteristics of the noise). Protected levels transpose correspondingly to higher or lower ambient levels.
However, there do not appear to be any devices on the market intended for occupational use, for example, that provide attenuation equal to or close to the minimum requirements described above. As a consequence, the market appears to fail the employer seeking a suitable protector for noise levels in the range 80-90 dB that does not ‘overprotect’.
This overprotection can result in the user being afforded a non-trivial attenuation at low frequencies. Current solutions also may provide underprotection at lower frequencies and overprotection at higher frequencies. For example, some current devices provide almost zero dB attenuation up to 500 HZ and, then, 25 dB attenuation at higher frequencies.